Known vending machines such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 294,718 and U.S. Pat. No. Des. 297,740 typically include a vending machine selection panel having a plurality of selection buttons, a coin inlet slot, a display, a sold out indicator light, a use correct change indicator light, and a coin return lever. Many such vending machines also include a covered bill acceptor slot and a point-of-sale window located near the top of the selection panel. The cover can be removed to facilitate the installation of a bill acceptor, the front face of which typically encompasses the entire bill acceptor slot.
With the increased acceptance of card technologies, in some vending machine applications it is desirable to include a card reader to provide the customer with a variety of purchasing methods. It is known to install a card reader rather than a bill acceptor in the bill acceptor slot. However, installing both devices is complicated and in some cases prevented by the space limitations of the vending machine. Particularly, many known bill acceptors such as the bill acceptor described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,173, which is assigned to the present assignee and the specification of which is incorporated herein by reference, include an upward extending housing in which accepted bills are stored. When mounted in a vending machine, the housing extends upward along the inner surface of the vending machine door and prevents positioning the card reader along that portion of the door because there is insufficient depth along the inner surface of the door to accommodate the card reader.
In known vending machines having doors with sufficient depth for the installation of the card reader, the additional space required for the card reader reduces the amount of space available for point-of-sale advertising. Creating a new opening and mounting area for the card reader is also costly due to the additional labor and materials required, and in some vending machines a new door may be required in order to install both devices. Further, installing the card reader above the bill acceptor slot makes it difficult for vending machine customers to reach.
The addition of other vending machine devices only serves to further complicate the aforementioned space limitations. Further, each device added to an existing vending machine requires its own power supply and microprocessor. Such separate power supplies and microprocessors increase the overall size and cost of the vending machine and may reduce overall reliability because there are more components which can malfunction.
Adding separate devices to the vending machine can also cause interface problems because there are numerous interface configurations in existing vending machines. Further, some vending machine controllers are not configured to communicate with devices such as card readers. Thus, the implementation of advanced vending machine features, such as device reprogramming, data retrieval, card revaluation, and control operations has not been possible.
Currently, when a vending machine device is reprogrammed its microprocessor is replaced or physically altered. Both situations require the vending machine to be opened and the particular device to be removed, making such reprogramming operations time consuming and expensive. Known methods of data retrieval require a separate connection on the vending machine which is dedicated to such data retrieval. Particularly, a portable computer may be connected to the vending machine via this connection and data may be transferred from the vending machine to the computer. Further, in known vending machine applications including card readers, the cards utilized are purchased from a central location. When the value of a card is depleted the card is either thrown away or possibly revalued at the central location. Therefore, a card holder must return to the central location in order to increase the value of the card.
Accordingly, it is desirable and advantageous to provide an integrated credit/information exchange module configured to facilitate retrofit installation into existing vending machines, meeting the space requirements of such vending machines in general and meeting the space requirements of vending machine bill acceptor slots in particular. It is also desirable and advantageous to provide an integrated credit/information exchange module which facilitates implementation of advanced vending machine features such as data retrieval, device reprogramming, card revaluation, and control operations.
An important object of the present invention is to provide a device which is capable of both bill examination and card examination and which effectively meets the space limitations of known vending machines.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device which is capable of both bill examination and card examination and which includes a plurality of interfaces for facilitating connection with and retrofit installation into various vending machine types.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a device which is capable of implementing advanced vending machine features as desired for particular applications.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device capable of both bill examination and card examination and which includes a control interface at which a control signal is produced in response to information encoded on a card.